The present disclosure relates to a rotary wing aircraft, and more particularly, to a failsafe mechanism for automatically detecting weight-on-wheels on a landing gear of a rotary wing aircraft.
Conventional aircraft may use weight-on-wheel (WOW) sensors and switches to detect a position of a component in a landing gear system that moves when the aircraft lands, such as a shock strut or drag beam, and thus sense a landing in response to such movement. Measurement of WOW for fly-by-wire and autonomous rotorcraft can be critical to a correct transition of the rotorcraft control system from airborne state to a ground state. Current systems with mechanical switches and sensors do not always actuate at the same amount of force on the landing gear. Further, current systems provide binary analog outputs and lack an integrated self-test capability.